Kyle Watson's blog for "The Ultimate Fighter 12," episode No. 2

First off, I just want to thank the MMAjunkie.com staff for inviting me to be a guest blogger for season 12 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and I definitely want to thank the readers for checking it out, as well.

I plan on giving you a little behind-the-scenes insight of this year’s episodes while also sharing some of my feelings and observations along the way

Also, as the season goes along, please feel free to leave questions for me in the comments section of the blogs. If there are things you want to know, I’ll do my best to address them in the following week’s edition.

As this episode opened, it was time to claim our spots in the house. I had a plan going in, but it didn’t really work out. We were like sheep when we got in the house, and everybody just tried to run upstairs first. A couple of guys saw the pool, so they headed out that way.

My goal was to try to get a room that was a little more secluded. I didn’t want to be too close to common areas. I was worried about it being too loud and not being able to get a good night’s sleep. First I ran upstairs, and I ran through this open door. There was a blanket taped over the door, but I ran right through it. All of a sudden, I hear a whole bunch of people yelling, “No, no, no, no! Don’t go down there!”

It was the confessional room, and I guess it was supposed to be locked. So I had to run back downstairs, and people were still scrambling around. I ended up seeing a small room, and I thought that while it was a little small, it had a decent bathroom, and it seemed kind of far away from the middle. I threw my bag down, and it ended up being the best room because it had the fewest number of people, and it ended up being furthest away from the action. I ended up lucking out that way.

From there, the party started – at least for some of the guys. Immediately, Jeff Lentz starts smoking, and I think, “Well, he’s not going to be around for too long.”

I was already thinking he was probably going to be one of the real interesting characters in the house because he really came off like he had ADD. When we were being told the rules of the house, everybody was listening, and he would just start tapping a bottle and try to talk with people. I don’t know – he just started showing some odd habits right off the bat. When he started drinking and smoking, I just thought, “Man, this guy is not going to last very long.” I would think if you worked that hard to get there, you’d want to be a little more professional, but I know the UFC always picks some different personalities for the show, so I assumed he would just fit right in.

Bruce Leroy

Of course, Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres also got right to work with his storytelling. To be honest, it’s a little overwhelming. I was pretty vocal about that, but I knew right away what to expect from Bruce.

During the portion of the tryouts where they send us out to Las Vegas, I ran into him there. You would see a few people around that you knew were there for the same reason you were, and so you would kind of hang out a little bit. We had dinner together with a few other guys one night, and I could tell right away in conversation what kind of personality Bruce had. Every story you had, he had something more. He had seen it all at the ripe old age of 21.

Going into the house, when he started telling the stories, I was like, “Oh, man. He’s really like this all the time.” He started one-upping people right away.

As soon as there was a we, there was a them

After that first night, it was time for team selection. On the show, you got to see Josh Koscheck’s list of selections. Believe me, I paused it and checked it out – and I was 13th.

I’m OK with that. Honestly, and I’m not sure if this is how it played out or not, but the one thing they didn’t show on TV is on that first day, they had all the coaches together. I tried to seize an opportunity that I saw; Kristof Midoux was one of the guys Georges St-Pierre brought in – the real big scary guy. I fought in BodogFIGHT, and so did he, so I knew him previously. I thought, “Oh, man, this is my in.” I really wanted to be picked by Georges anyway, so I thought maybe if I went up and talked to him in front of Georges, maybe he’ll see that we have a mutual friend.

I went up and tried that strategy, and it worked to some extent. Kristof totally recognized me, and he also had sent one of his students from France over to train at the H.I.T. Squad, where I’m a coach. We kind of had that connection, so started talking to Georges. Koscheck saw all of this, so I don’t know if that had anything to do with his rankings or not.

I was kind of disappointed with how late I was picked. I didn’t expect to go first or anything, but I thought with my experience and my pedigree I might go higher. I definitely thought there was no way I would go after Bruce, but I did! Later on, Georges pulled me aside, and he said he picked me late because he knew Koscheck wouldn’t pick me. He said with having a mutual friend, Koscheck might think I would be a spy. He said he went after the guys he knew Koscheck wanted first, and he figured I would still be there.

He didn’t have to say that, so it made me feel a little better, but I was left wondering, “How the hell did I go ninth out of 14?”

One thing I thought the cameras didn’t pick up on was the emotion behind the team-picking ceremony. That first night, everybody got along really well. Everyone was telling stories and getting along. It was just a really exciting experience for us all to be in the house. But as soon as the jerseys came on, the dynamic shifted.

It’s like they said in my psychology class in college, as soon there is a we, there is a them. That’s exactly how it played out. As soon as the jerseys came on, it was like, “OK, we can’t talk anymore.” I didn’t feel the red team was too much like that, but you could definitely feel it from the yellow team.

The tension started literally right after leaving the team picks. As soon as the jerseys were on, they just had this gang mentality. “We’re yellow team, and you’re going down.” It was so weird to see that change in like an hour.

Georges’ philosophy

Of course, the other great part about the picks was Georges’ hustling strategy of bluffing Koscheck into making a pick outside of his original plan. Georges told us about what he had done probably four different times. He was like a little kid when he told us because he was so proud of himself.

It was funny to watch it on the show because when he was telling us what he had done, I didn’t think there was any way it could have worked quite as well as he thought it did. But it did! To see that it really worked just like he said it had was impressive. He was so happy when he told us that story.

On the show, Georges talked about his desire for us to improve as fighters over his desire for us to win the show. I actually thought that was a great thing to say. There were a lot of opportunities on the show to really see inside of Georges’ character, and this was one of them. Koscheck says Georges is fake and this and that, but honestly, he really is a genuine, sincere guy. You could tell right away that he was there for us and not himself.

His whole thing was that he wanted us to do well and win, but as a team, he knew at some point the group wold dissolve, and he couldn’t root for any specific person, so he wanted to make us all better as a team. His whole thing was to make us better mixed martial artists and professionals.

He had seven guys on his team, and he didn’t want to single anybody out. He didn’t even care if we won more fights than Koscheck’s team. He just wanted to make us better fighters and further our careers. I thought it was awesome. You could tell he was really there to let us shine versus him trying to make a spectacle of his upcoming fight with Koscheck.

Caceres vs. Lentz

Georges let Leroy pick the first fight, and I’ll be honest – I was nervous. The first fight sets the pace for the whole show, and if we lost control right off the bat, it could be bad news.

Jeff’s first fight was a brutal win, so there was some concern there. Of course, watching him drink and smoke made it seem like maybe he wasn’t taking it too serious. That gave me at least a little more confidence in Bruce.

As the first round wore on, I didn’t think it was a blowout, but I definitely thought the judges would favor Lentz based on control. They both landed some shots, but I figured with the throw at the end of the round, he definitely clinched it.

Between rounds, Lentz was talking a little smack. I didn’t see that until the show, but I thought it was funny. It definitely fit his personality. You’ll probably see as the season wears on, the loss didn’t slow his talking down in the house. You could usually kind of shut him up by reminding him he lost to Bruce, but he still liked to talk.

As for the end, Bruce’s triangle was pretty quick, but from a jiu-jitsu guy’s standpoint, I could see it coming a mile away. I was surprised he still let it happen. When Bruce crossed his legs, he still didn’t have it locked, but Lentz tried to pick him up and slam him. That’s one of the worst things you can do. Yeah, there’s a slight chance you might get out, but a lot of times, it just locks you in there worse. Instead of getting out in a technical way, he tried to muscle out and learned a lesson the hard way.

Bruce even went under the wrong way and secured the wrong leg. Lentz had plenty of chances to get out.
The aftermath

The team was definitely happy and celebrating the win. Even though Georges just wanted to make us better fighters, we all wanted to sweep the whole tournament. We wanted to put solid red in the quarterfinals because none of us liked Koscheck anyway.

But as far as our opinion of Bruce, he was still kind of annoying in the house with his wild stories. We really felt like he got kind of lucky in the fight. He did pull it out, but it definitely didn’t sway me to think differently of him. He definitely wasn’t as good as he talked, though as much as he talked, that would be pretty much impossible. I will say this, he does have a lot of athleticism, and I think it did save him.

Thanks everyone for tuning in, and I am excited to be back next week recapping another episode. Until then, check out my official website at WatsonBJJ.com, or follow me on my official Facebook page. Also, check out my partners at AmericanFighter.com and WeightTraining4MMA.com, who were kind enough to sponsor my blog this season.

From Our Partners

The Latest

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?